The Train to Djibouti

'' ... if you will receive my sayings and treasure upMy own commandments with yourself, if youcall out for understanding and for discernment,if you keep seeking for it as if for silver, and asfor hid treasures you keep searching for it, in thatcase you will understand the very knowledge ofGod. For God himself gives wisdom.'' [ Proverbs 2: 1-5] What I'm about to tell, they're not simply memories, thoughts drawn from the journal of a trip; it is not only the story of one adventure or the recollection of precious moments. It is rather my attempt to revisit the weft of a thick mosaic of emotions, never, before then, experienced; a wood inlaid with indelible, incorruptible images, a drape embroidered with the faces of an entire people; a painting of thousands of colours; a story of a world of dreams, sometimes not appreciated by those who want to achieve other dreams. A story of dreams not understood by those to whom that world does not belong. A story of lives hanging from a thread and that of landscapes hanging in the void. The story of ancient hidden treasures; the story of a man vanished into nothing and that of others who came out of it. The story of an invisible train and that of a river that disappears into the sands.